Our Very Different Relationship
by sctwilightvampwolfgal
Summary: Luka's life is so vastly different than Chloe's, and yet somehow she savors those differences.


It was nothing more than something small or at least that's the word for it, I think. It can't be more than something to kill the budding attraction that had swallowed her whole since she was five. Surely, that's all that can be credited toward this and another way to raise above that Marinette Dupain Cheng.

It wasn't really anything big, even when clear blue eyes drove home the point that she wasn't just Chloe Bourgeois and maybe had been more than that. Eyes darting back to rock and roll T-Shirts that she'd gotten used to, the callouses on his fingers that surely were more intense than Adrien's, making his hands not velvety smooth or the kind of soft that she liked.

Noise generally followed him, and Chloe considered it a blessing that she hadn't gone deaf yet, though she wouldn't really say much more than that. it wasn't anything like dating Adrien; it wasn't at all like the kisses and the snuggles that Marinette and Adrien couldn't quite resist. It wasn't cheesy or over the top romantic, and Chloe liked the almost stillness of it. It was something that she wouldn't admit to liking, like how her mother had nearly had a fit just seeing her with Luka and how her father had even disapproved though he never could stay mad at her for long. She was too much like her mother, though Chloe never saw it that way.

Luka was treated like a celebrity in the places that no one really seemed to know Chloe, and he was left out of the high end parties that Chloe always had to deal with and had convinced herself that she liked. It was easier that way, and somehow instead, she's tasting black cherries and wondering if she's getting lipstick on her face for kissing a guy, and it's so unlike how she pictured herself.

Somewhere deep down, she knows that it doesn't really upset Marinette. Somewhere deep down where it's hard to admit, she kind of likes the feeling. She likes slipping out of the hotel, to avoid her parents, and to hang out with Luka. She likes the concerts that always seem far too loud and just not quite right for her; she likes the bars that he plays at, that always give her extra sweet lemonade without her asking. They know that somehow she's there with Luka, and somehow they are both not allowed to have alcohol.

She likes the kids in the band that she still finds herself unable to follow, and she likes the visits to Luka's when she sometimes has to sit down at a family dinner, be nice to Juleka who she'd bullied before, and talk to Anarka like a relaxed mother. She likes the contrast as she doesn't have to deal with the high end parties just what her parents would call "low end" and where somehow she doesn't have to worry over whether her mother was just being the woman that she'd always been.

Chloe isn't sure why the difference sparks something in her, just like she isn't sure why Anarka somehow seems different than Andre, especially since they both can be relaxed. (But her room still needs to be spotless and some times it's not okay to laugh or joke, though it often goes unspoken.) The unspoken rules aren't here, or at least not the same ones that she'd memorized as a little girl.

Instead, she's allowed to talk to listening ears and to laugh, even loudly if she'd like. She's allowed to sit ultra close to Luka, even hold his hand, even though it made it hard to eat. Chloe has permission to just be a normal girl, not the daughter of the mayor which comes with its own kind of regulations. Some of which her father wouldn't admit or realize existed. Chloe has responsibilities and yet here, some of them are allowed to float away and make her into the kind of girl that doesn't have to worry about high end things.

It doesn't even mean that she has to be someone else. It won't stop Chloe from the expensive fashion she likes or barr her from the high end events that she is required to go to. Some of which Chloe's positive that she likes, even though other parties can drag on without decent company. She's still Chloe, and he's still Luka. She just never expected to like these differences.

Somehow every concert held at bars with the kind of people that her mother wouldn't be caught dead near or the taste of black cherries left something within her not unlike a wild spell, but so much more. It wasn't refined, and Luka was not a celebrity like Jagged Stone is that could justify her desire to be among the crowd and hear the strumming of a guitar.

But, still Chloe had fallen in love with him, more than she'd probably care to admit. She wasn't sure when the shift happened or what changed, but somehow it was incredible to just visit Luka or be the special one in his concert that he sometimes stared straight at while singing a love song. It was not the kind of life that Chloe had ever expected for herself or wanted, but every day beside her boyfriend was like a different thrill than she'd ever known.

Every second in his company both brought out their differences and drew them closer together. Somehow, Chloe had found happiness in the name of revenge and quit seeking revenge. She just wasn't sure that she was ready to admit it to the world as she leaned against his shoulder hearing good humor and deciding that it was the best kind of sound to have a post-dinner nap to.


End file.
